Officer pleads not guilty to DWI charge

Updated 8:39 am, Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Veteran Albany Police Officer Max Etienne, right arrives at the City Court building at 1 Morton Avenue Monday afternoon, Feb. 19, 2013 in Albany, N.Y., for his arraignment on DWI charges for an incident occurring early Sunday morning in Albany. (Skip Dickstein/Times Union)

Veteran Albany Police Officer Max Etienne, right arrives at the...

Veteran Albany Police Officer Max Etienne arrives at the City Court building at 1 Morton Avenue Monday afternoon, Feb. 19, 2013 in Albany, N.Y., for his arraignment on DWI charges for an incident occurring early Sunday morning in Albany. (Skip Dickstein/Times Union)

Veteran Albany Police Officer Max Etienne, right arrives at the City Court building at 1 Morton Avenue Monday afternoon, Feb. 19, 2013 in Albany, N.Y., for his arraignment on DWI charges for an incident occurring early Sunday morning in Albany. (Skip Dickstein/Times Union)

Veteran Albany Police Officer Max Etienne, right arrives at the...

Veteran Albany Police Officer Max Etienne arrives at the City Court building at 1 Morton Avenue Monday afternoon, Feb. 19, 2013 in Albany, N.Y., for his arraignment on DWI charges for an incident occurring early Sunday morning in Albany. (Skip Dickstein/Times Union)

ALBANY — With a row of fellow police officers sitting behind him in a sign of support, Officer Max Etienne pleaded not guilty Tuesday to charges that he slammed into three parked cars while driving drunk in Pine Hills on Sunday morning and then tried to drive away.

Etienne, a 42-year-old 10-year veteran of the force who was one of the city's highest-earning employees in 2012, did not speak to reporters outside City Court. Judge William Carter released Etienne after he was arraigned on charges of driving while intoxicated and leaving the scene of a property damage accident, both misdemeanors, and refusing to take a Breathalyzer test and failing to stay in a single lane, both violations.

Around 5 a.m. Sunday, police say Etienne barrelled his Chevy Tahoe into a row of parked cars near the intersection of South Main Avenue and Bancker Street. In the arrest report, police said Etienne reeked of alcohol, slurred his words, had poor balance and motor coordination and failed three field sobriety tests. No one was injured in the crash.

Etienne's license has temporarily been taken away, and a Department of Motor Vehicles hearing scheduled for next week could result in his license being revoked for up to one year. Meanwhile, the Police Department is conducting an internal investigation.

Police Chief Steve Krokoff said Tuesday that Etienne is a well-regarded officer and that he was not surprised that more than a dozen colleagues — many in uniform — accompanied Etienne to Tuesday's court appearance.

"I don't condemn the man, but I do condemn his actions," Krokoff said.

The chief added that Etienne recently received a departmental award for stopping a child from being sexually assaulted in August 2012.

"Unfortunately, the actions you see here are not consistent with what you see on the job," Krokoff said.

Etienne, however, has been the subject of internal investigations before. In December 2008, he crashed into three parked cars on Colatosti Place and then drove away. Three months before that, Etienne allegedly dropped his department-issued handgun outside a bar during the annual LarkFest celebration. At the time of that September 2008 incident, a person familiar with the investigation told the Times Union that the department was focusing on whether Etienne was drunk when he allegedly dropped his firearm on the sidewalk and walked away. Krokoff could not discuss whether Eitenne was disciplined for either 2008 case.

The new investigation could result in consequences ranging suspension to firing. Etienne, who earned just over $117,500 in 2012, making him the 39th-highest-paid city employee, has been temporarily suspended without pay.

In 2011, the department fired Officer Brian Lutz on the grounds he could not perform his job after the DMV revoked his driver's license for his December 2010 drunken driving arrest. The Appellate Division of state Supreme Court, however, sided with Lutz in November, saying the firing based solely on the revoked license was "both arbitrary and capricious and contrary to law." Because of that ruling, Krokoff said Tuesday that the department would not fire Etienne if his license is revoked.

Because Etienne refused to take a Breathalyzer exam, he can't plead to lesser charges. In May 2011, District Attorney David Soares made it a policy to not accept plea bargains in DWI cases when a defendant refuses to take a chemical breath test. That policy change came one month after then-police spokesman James Miller pleaded guilty to driving while ability impaired by alcohol, a violation, for a March 2011 arrest for which Miller refused to take a breath test.

Outside court Tuesday, Jenna Hahne, whose mother's and sister's cars were allegedly battered by Etienne in Sunday's crash, said she feared Etienne would get preferential treatment because he is a police officer.

"If that was me, I'd be in jail right now," said Hahne.

Etienne's lawyer, Michael McDermott, said after Tuesday's arraignment that his client is not receiving any special treatment from the courts or police.

"This case is no different," McDermott said. "It's just getting more attention because of his employment as a police officer."